April 16, 2004 – With the spring classic series behind us we finally moved on to the first “big” race of the season. The Harris-Roubaix proved to be the most challenging win so far. The course consisted of a short 5 km loop that contained a 1.5 km gravel river dyke. The team would cover this dyke 20 times during the race. Harris-Roubaix started with 75 riders and ended with less than 30. Flats, mechanicals and crashes eliminated the majority of the field before the half way mark of the race. In the end young Cam Evans (Delta, BC) was able to take the win and Marsh Cooper (Langley, BC) taking 7th in the pack sprint. With Cam at 20 and Marsh at 18 it was another day of the young riders showing their strengths.
On the women's side Mandy Poitras (Langley, BC) grabbed fifth overall after being lead out by Corinne Issel. Symmetrics' Marni Prazsky was set to contend the sprint but she suffered a flat on the very last lap during the gravel section. It was an epic day that only pictures can do justice at this point. You can check out photos on the Symmetrics Cycling website: www.symmetricscycling.com. Just click on the drop down box on the bottom of the home page. Look for the Harris-Roubaix Men's and Women's links. I would like to thank Dave Overgaard (Norco Bicycles), for coming out to show his support of the team at Harris. We love to see our sponsors taking an interest in what we are doing. It also helps to keep our boys and girls on their toes. They polished their bikes an extra 30 minutes knowing you were coming! 🙂 Also, check out our Sponsor Highlight below. The people at Velomax have been very supportive of our program. I recently went on a cycling trip to Santa Barbara and the Velomax gang set me up with a pair of their 1150 gram Ascent II carbon tubulars to train on for two weeks. What a ride! This weekend is the beginning of our month long US road trip to Washington (Tahuya-Seabeck-Tahuya), Arizona (La Vuelta de Bisbee), New Mexico (Tour of the Gila) and Oregon (Columbia Plateau). I will be tagging along with the team while I try to just “stay in” but I will be sending race updates and photos along the way.